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In Japanese, sentai (戦隊) is a military unit and may be literally translated as "squadron", "task force", "division (of ships)", "group" or "wing". The terms "regiment" and "flotilla", while sometimes used as translations of sentai, are also used to refer to larger formations.
The term was used during World War II by the military of the Empire of Japan for Imperial Japanese Army Air Service (IJAAS) and Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJNAS) military aviation units equivalent to a group or wing in other air forces. However, the term had slightly different meanings in the IJAAS and the IJNAS.
An IJAAS Sentai was made up of two to four squadrons (chūtai). In the IJAAS, two or more Sentai comprised a hikōdan (air brigade). In the later stages of World War II, the IJAAS abolished chūtai and divided its sentai into hikōtai (flying units) and seibitai (maintenance units). A sentai commander (sentaichō) was generally a lieutenant colonel.
In the IJNAS, a sentai was a larger unit: a Kōkūtai was the equivalent of an IJAAS sentai. Several sentai made up a kantai (air fleet). In the IJNAS, a Sentaichō was usually a naval captain.
Sentai in the Japanese Navy were prescribed by the document Naval military command No. 10, Kantairei (艦隊令) dated 30 November 1914.
Paraphrased, they were defined as follows:
The Super Sentai Series (スーパー戦隊シリーズ, Sūpā Sentai Shirīzu) is a franchise of Japanese tokusatsu television dramas produced by Toei and TV Asahi that uses the word sentai to describe a group of three or more costumed superheroes who often pilot fictional robotic vehicles to fight kaiju.
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